A/N: Yeah I know you all have been waiting for a while to get this chapter, but it was hard to write and my teachers enjoy making my misery extend to home.
Anyway, if you read the book Peeps by Scott Westerfield (or just take some sort of biology) you'll know what I mean in the story when I say "basic instinct." Short version, somewhere along the line in our monkey ancestry, our monkey grandfathers learned something. RUN AWAY WHEN YOU ARE ABOUT TO GET EATEN! Because, as we all know, if we don't run away, those monkeys tend to not evolve.
Thinking Demon talking/thinking
Demon and Human thinking at the same time.
Disclaimer: You can't fake having short-term memory loss!
"Well, you're a pretty bird, aren't you?" Takira said. She stretched out an arm and Falks jumped up out of his mini bow and jumped to her arm, causing pinpricks of blood to show where his talons had dug into her skin. She stroked his plumage with a curled finger. "Hmm… a hawk… nice coloring, healthy and in the prime of life. What a nice bird." He cooed gently to it. Meanwhile, all eyes were on her. She turned her sharp gaze to them. "What? Can't I appreciate a fine bird when I see it?"
"Um… you don't seem the type to like birds… or anything…" Kankuro offered.
Takira smirked. "Just because I don't like you doesn't mean I don't like anything. And I happen to like birds quite a lot."
Naruto fidgeted, ready to get back on track. "Takira, will you just join us Kages in the other room?" He felt Gaara looking at him questioningly, but kept his eyes on the woman in front of them, ready for some kind of trick.
Takira appeared to ignore him for a moment. She curled her arm so that Falks was facing her. "What do you think?"
Surprisingly enough, the bird looked into her eyes. She nodded every few seconds, as if to show that she was listening. Falk's beak clacked a few times, but for the most part, he stayed silent and still. Takira 'hmed' her responses every couple of seconds. Naruto wondered if she had finally lost her mind.
She stood, careful of the bird. He moved in a skip, hop to her shoulder, his body twice the size of her head. She nodded curtly at them. "Fine. Naruto, you've got a pretty wise hawk on your hands." Falks squawked in agreement.
Naruto motioned to the adjoining office. Takira moved in front of him and Gaara behind her. Naruto turned to his friends. "Thank you for your patience during these last few… annoying hours. I have an idea that soon everything will be made crystal clear." (A/N: Shudders as I write this. He sounds like a cult leader.) With that, Naruto entered the office.
Takira was extremely nervous with Gaara in the same room as her, though she had no idea why. Okay, she didn't, but her demon did. Mental images that would scar young children for life were flitting unbidden through her head.
Gaara sat, hands folded in a chair, setting his gourd down. She followed suit apprehensively. Usually she could read people like books, but Gaara's face was so impassive that she worried if he might attempt to kill her if she made one wrong move, which like as not he would do with anybody. Still, it unnerved her and she ignored her human's basic instinct of a trapped animal to get as far as possible from the trap and stayed where she was. She fidgeted her hands as she sat down and Falks nipped her ear for moving her shoulder. She shrugged and he flew to sit on a stand.
Naruto came in a few minutes later and sat behind his desk. "Well?" Takira raised an eyebrow, waiting for him to actually ask the question she knew was running through his mind, and probably everyone else's out in the other room. Naruto sighed, as if just realizing that she wasn't going to make extracting information from her easy. "We're not stupid Takira…" He trailed off, hoping she would fill in the spaces.
"That remains to be seen." Takira said, smirking.
A moment later she grunted in pain. She tried to phase through whatever was holding her to the wall, but couldn't. She glared at Gaara, who smirked in answer. Growling, she wrenched an arm free, but it was quickly swallowed again. She grit her teeth in frustration.
"Tell us." He stated simply.
"Fine. I have a demon. Happy?" She spat.
"For now." Gaara let her down.
She stayed on the floor; her body tired and she just didn't even have the willpower to force herself up. For once, she wanted to just sit down, give up, and do whatever the hell she wanted. "Yeah, yeah. Now you know why the Akatusuki are after me and you can't be mad at me for leaving. I left for your own good."
Naruto rolled his eyes. "Like we haven't heard that excuse before." He glanced at Gaara and Takira saw a strange look cross his eyes. She could read it as… perhaps weariness, dissatisfaction or a combination of the two. "I know that you didn't know me that well, and I sure as hell didn't know you, but it seemed to me that everyone who did meet you and got to know you for more than a few hours, really liked you. You know that we are all completely capable of protecting ourselves…"
"And what if you weren't?" Takira snapped, rising to her feet. "What if they came and you couldn't defend yourselves? I should just let you die for the sake of being friends with me?"
Naruto and Gaara glanced at each other, and said in unison, "Yes."
Takira's eyes widened. She hadn't expected that answer. She tried to step back, but she met wall. What the hell? These guys are supposed to agree with me, hate my guts. Refuse to even look at me!
And yet they don't.
A/N: I tried as hard as I could to make this longer, and the first version was a half a page shorter, so deal with it. Review and I will tell you my government conspiracy theory.